About DPS

Mission Statement

In collaboration with our community and parents, the mission of Durham Public Schools is to provide all students with an outstanding education that motivates them to reach their full potential and enables them to discover their interests and talents, pursue their goals and dreams, and succeed in college, in the workforce, and as engaged citizens.

Vision Statement

The Durham community cherishes its children, and the Durham
Public Schools are the daily expression of that care.

We share a vision of our schools where every child succeeds.
This vision includes schools so enticing that students want to attend every
day, where they find a safe, orderly and culturally diverse environment for
learning that nurtures and strengthens the whole child—body and mind. We
provide an environment that teaches students to value all people and treat them
with respect. In these schools, our students are fully engaged in a rigorous,
enriched curriculum, and they graduate with the thinking skills, creativity,
and technological know-how to meet the demands of post-secondary education and
employment. Our graduates embrace ongoing learning as a way of life. They are
committed to the highest values of active democratic citizenship and they are
ready to lead.

Our vision includes teachers who are caring, highly
qualified and who aspire to work at the peak of their profession. We hire and
retain the best—and the best teachers want to work in Durham Public Schools
because they receive the salaries, support, respect and professional training
they need to deliver superior, student-centered classroom instruction. While
improving students’ test scores is critical to the work of our teachers, our
vision encompasses so much more. Our schools are places where our children are
excited to learn, where they find waiting for them at the door of every
classroom a teacher who cares for them, instructs them at the highest level and
inspires them to reach their full potential.

Our vision includes administrators who are themselves
visionary leaders, who lead with high student achievement at the core of every
decision they make. It includes all staff members working hand-in-hand
with teachers and administrators to meet the needs of every child.

Parents choose to send their children to Durham Public
Schools, and we welcome the participation of our families. Our vision includes
open and honest communication with families. We empower our families to be
their children’s best first teachers and to share their expertise. Our
vision includes children with loving families who nourish them, who send them to
school with a warm smile every morning, who read to them each night.

We recognize that students succeed because families,
schools, and community members work together. We invite the support of
our entire community. Our vision for Durham’s children will become real only
when each and every one of them has decent housing and excellent health care
and a safe neighborhood—when the entire community comes together around the
needs of every family and every child.

This is our vision. It is a daily challenge to each of us
working in Durham Public Schools, and it is a call to our community to join in
this difficult but glorious work.

The Durham Public Schools Board of Education believes that:

All children have talents,
skills, and unique abilities

All children want to
pursue their goals and dreams

All children can succeed
in their pursuits: college, the workforce, community engagement

Schools have a large
effect on what and how well children learn and on eliminating achievement
gaps

School districts can be high-performing,
excellent organizations

Schools succeed when the
entire community comes together around the needs of every child and every
family

All children benefit from
being educated in a socio-economically, ethnically, and racially diverse
environment

The Durham Public Schools Board of Education commitments are
that:

Our children will be
challenged to achieve at their highest capacity

Our school district will
ensure that all of our children have at least one year of growth for one
year of schooling

Our school district will
diminish achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, and socio-economic
status until they are extinguished

Our schools will be filled
with high quality, competent, and caring teachers, principals, and staff

Our schools will be safe,
orderly, and clean

Our schools will involve
family members and caregivers in the education of their children

Our school leaders will
collaborate with the Durham community

Our school district will
steadily and significantly increase its high school completion rate

Our school district will
promote socio-economic, ethnic, and racial diversity at all schools

Our school district will
have the financial resources to give every child an excellent education,
will operate with fiscal efficiency and accountability to the public, and
will be a high-performing organization